Imperfect Life: Arc 1

Chapter 4

Over the next few weeks, the summer continued. Brandon and Crys hung out most of the time, and over those few weeks they became pretty good friends. On one particular day, the two of them were having a chat as Brandon was walking Crys home. It was cool out and the sun had just set.

"Man, can you believe that we've known each other for a whole MONTH now?" Said Crys, a bit astounded.

"Yeah. Kinda wild. School starts soon too, I guess. I think like a week or something?"

"Something like that." Crys said with disappointment.

"You know. You really don't need to walk me home." Crys said flatly.

"Well, there's a first time for everything, and besides, your house isn't too many houses away from mine anyways." Brandon said.

"You know, we could probably go out into the forest sometime. I've gone out into it a few times and it's nice and peaceful there." Crys suggested.

"I mean we could, I guess. We do both live on the edge of it. I don't know though, who knows what lives in that forest."

"You referring to that monster that saved you?" Crys teased.

"I mean, who knows." Brandon said defensively. "I just don't want to get killed by something like that."

"Yeah, yeah." Crys dismissed. Crys then stopped where she was and grunted in pain while clenching her gut.

"Crys are you all right?" Brandon asked.

"Yeah... It's just some stomach pain." Crys said, trying to sound okay.

"You able to get home okay?" "Yeah."

A few minutes later they arrived at Crys' house. Crys bid goodnight to Brandon as she entered her house and locked the door after her. Brandon began to turn and leave.

*Man, life sure has been kind to me recently. Made a friend, and so far nothing bad has happened. I mean, sure I almost got mugged, but whatever.* Brandon thought to himself.

Brandon then heard loud and blood curdling screaming seemingly coming from Crys' house. Brandon ran back over to Crys' front door and knocked on it anxiously, wondering if Crys was all right. "Crys!" Brandon called out after the yelling stopped. "Crys!?" Brandon repeated.

Brandon had no clue what to do. He was terrified. For all he knew, his friend might have just been murdered. Brandon backed up onto the sidewalk and pulled out his phone. He was going to call someone to get help. Suddenly from behind Brandon, a loud thud noise happened. Brandon turned around to face whatever made the noise, and he saw it. It was the same monstrous creature that he had encountered about a month ago. Brandon had a few things coursing through his mind at this moment. He was curious about the creature and wanted to know more about it, but more prevalent was only one thought. Run. Brandon started to run away as fast as possible down the sidewalk. He turned briefly to look behind him and see if he was being chased, but the thing wasn't there. As Brandon turned to look forwards again he lost his footing and stumbled. He fell and was able to get himself to land on his back. Unfortunately for him though, he also hit his head on the sidewalk relatively hard. Brandon layed on the sidewalk, unable to move. The back of his head felt warm and his eyes felt heavy. He tried to keep his eyes open, but he wasn't able to. The last thing Brandon saw before his eyes closed was the shadowy outline of the creature he was running from, and all he felt was fear.